The Wheel of Retail Gravitation?

Reilly's Law of Retail Gravitation ranks among the classics of marketing geography. In this paper an examination of the evolution of Reilly's law is made, the contemporaneous wheel of retailing theory being used as an organisational framework. In line with the wheel, the gravity model commenced as a simple conceptualisation of consumer spatial behaviour, became increasingly sophisticated through time, and thereby created conditions conducive to the reemergence of the basic interaction model. The wheel theory, however, describes but does not explain the processes of change, and the need for a more comprehensive model of the evolution of retailing thought is discussed.